James Houser?

[redsmetz]

I happened to notice this morning that the Rays released their 2003 2nd round James Houser, a Lefty pitcher. We saw him pitch against Gwinnett this past May and he looked decent.

His stats for this year though have looked fairly bad (his WHIP balooned this year) and I see he knee surgery last season, although he returned to finish the season. Anyone know more about him and whether he might be worth a minor league flyer? He's just 24 and it's certainly possible he may be washed up.

Just curious and not necessarily advocating for him.

(I also see now he was suspended for 50 games in '07 for testing postive for PED's)

After optioning Joe Nelson to Durham on Friday, the Rays made the corresponding move by signing RHP Jeff Bennett and added him to the active roster. To make room the Rays released LHP James Houser who was currently on the 40-man and pitching for Triple-A Durham. Bennett has pitched for the Atlanta Braves in three and a half seasons mainly out of the bullpen. His career ERA/FIP is a decent 3.18/4.55 but struggled with his control in 34 innings with the Braves walking 5.56 batters per nine innings. He went on the disabled list on June 25 with a fracture in his non-throwing hand.

Bennett can throw a low-mid 90s fastball that has some sink on it giving him a carerer GD% of 55%. The fastball averages around 92 mph throwing it over 70% of the time. The Rays love pitcher who can throw the fastball around 705 of the time.

James Houser was drafted by the Rays in the 2nd round of the 2003 draft out of Sarasota High School. Houser pitched at triple-A for the first time this season but has his own control problems walking 50 to 44 strikeouts and was recently moved to the bullpen.

[KoryMac5]

Once a top prospect who can't get the ball over the plate, could be worth a flier. I honestly don't trust the Reds staff to fix his issues.

[redsmetz]

I understand what you're saying, but it may not be a bad pick up. I'm not convinced that we don't know how to develop folks anymore. It's been a tough season and I think everything is amplified. Of course, maybe there's more here than meets the eye.

[KoryMac5]

Did some more digging and it looks like the Rays felt that they had other pitchers who showed more potential as a starter than Houser. Couple that with his nagging injuries and they moved him to the pen. One webste had this to say about Houser:

One other thing to take note of is his sometimes extreme flyball tendencies: for his career, he maintains just a 37% groundball rate.

At his best, Houser mixes in two curveballs and a change-up with am upper-80's/low-90's fastball. Considered a projectable body a few years ago, Houser simply hasn't added the velocity to his fastball that it seemed he might. Though he hasn't suffered a major arm injury, several nagging injuries have no doubt taken their toll.

Given his performance, his injury history, and the logjam of starting pitchers ahead of him, Houser projects as a reliever. His FIP against left-handed hitters is only slightly lower than against righties(4.21 vs. 4.34), but his groundball rate is way better(47%, still not quite ideal).

[redsmetz]

Interesting. That would explain why no one's jumped out there for him. I'm guessing maybe some folks look at him after the new year comes around and they're looking for roster filler and such.